In its third year, the growing celebration of all things science and the only World Science Festival franchise outside of New York, WSF Brisbane promises to ignite debate and inspire discovery.

Running from March 21-25, WSF Brisbane focuses on the theme of ‘humanity’, and will see Griffith University experts in the thick of discussions delving into our deep past and speculating on how our species will survive an uncertain future.

Griffith will also play its part taking science to the street for fun activities designed to motivate budding scientists to pursue STEM careers, and so find the answers our vulnerable species and fragile planet needs.

ARCHE Director and geochronologist Professor Rainer Grun will share his globally-renowned expertise in the latest techniques to date fossils, which are shedding modern light on our evolution, and even re-writing history.

“Previous finds out of Africa, in the Levantine corridor and China, dated the first modern humans to around 100,000 years but now we can prove through our dating analysis that Homo sapiens left Africa as far back as around 200,000 years ago,” Professor Grün said.

Professor Grun will be joined on the event panel by archaeologist and ARC Future Fellow, Associate Professor Adam Brumm, who has extensively explored caves and open sites on the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and Flores, unearthing a trove of finds related to humanity’s ancient heritage and the evolutionary history of ‘Ice Age’ people.

“There may have been a period of overlap in Southeast Asia between Homo sapiens and earlier, now extinct human species, such as the ‘Hobbit’ of Flores – we don’t have direct evidence, but the possibility is exciting, as is the wider archaeological evidence from more recent time periods that modern humans in this region were more culturally advanced than previous studies have suggested,” Associate Professor Brumm said.

Moderated by well-known science communicator, palaeontologist and former ABC Catalyst presenter Paul Willis, the panel discussion may not definitively decide who ‘won’ the race out of Africa, but it will spotlight the global significance of studying ancient peoples in our region.

One thing is certain, a myriad of answers will come from studying very, very old teeth, because according to ARCHE Associate Professor Tanya Smith, teeth tell tales, and very accurate ones.

“Teeth have this amazing record locked inside of them for millions of years and they tell us about diet, growth and development and behaviour,” said Professor Smith.

“When we grow our teeth they are almost like fossils already. We can come up with an accurate age if an individual died before they stopped forming their teeth, we can count each daily line inside the teeth.”

Associate Professor Smith, will serve up her Teeth Tales over a Brainfood Breakfast, with the highly-experienced science communicator, who spent eight years as a Harvard University researcher, set to wet audience’s appetites for her toothy stories to be published in a forthcoming book later this year.

Forecasting the future

The role of genetics is also being probed in a timely breakfast debate – just 12 days out from Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games – that will explore the ‘nature vs nuture’ arguments for creating sporting champions. Dr Caroline Riot, of Griffith’s Faculty of Business, School of Tourism, Sport & Hotel Management, will add her voice to the Brainfood Breakfast event.

Glycomics promises a new frontier of drug and vaccine discovery, and Dr Seib’s own research into different kinds of vaccines for middle ear infections, Meningococcal disease and the intractable STI Gonorrhoea will hopefully find solutions, before the super-bugs get the better of us.

“Vaccines really need to be the long-term solution, because some of these bugs just continue to mutate to resist new antibiotics, which only really buy us a small amount of time,” Dr Seib said.

Making it fun

Street Science will offer plenty of hands-on stimulation, including a sneak preview of the Sea Jellies exhibit, set to open at Seaworld in a unique partnership with Griffith coastal researchers later this year. The adventurous can hop on a free (bookings required) boat cruise to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, led by Griffith’s Australian Rivers Institute scientists, to discover the fascinating world of underwater eco-acoustics, tuning into a performance by Lone Pine’s resident population of grunting catfish.

Since last WSF, Griffith coastal researchers, led by Associate Professor Andrew Brooks have taken out a prestigious Eureka prize for their research into the Great Barrier Reef, further proof that Griffith has much to offer modern science, and the ongoing quest for answers.

This year’s WSF line-up also sees the return of co-founder Professor Brian Greene, and features NASA senior scientist Dr Jennifer Wiseman and maths sensation and recently announced 2018 Australian Local Hero Eddie Woo.

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